Check the facts

Q: What happened during the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya?

A: The time line of the attack:

? 8:30 p.m. Benghazi time (2:30 p.m. EDT): U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens steps outside the consulate to say goodbye to a Turkish diplomat. There are no protesters at this time. ("Everything is calm at 8:30," a State Department official would later say at an Oct. 9 background briefing for reporters. "There's nothing unusual. There has been nothing unusual during the day at all outside.")

? 9 p.m.: Ambassador Stevens retires to his bedroom for the evening.

? Approximately 9:40 p.m. A security agent at the Benghazi compound hears "loud noises" coming from the front gate and "gunfire and an explosion." A senior State Department official at the Oct. 9 briefing says that "the camera on the main gate reveals a large number of people - a large number of men, armed men, flowing into the compound."

? About 10 p.m. (4 p.m. EDT): This is the approximate time of attack that was given to reporters at a Sept. 12 State Department background briefing. An administration official identified only as "senior administration official one" provides the following official time line of events at the consulate from the time of the attack. "The compound where our office is in Benghazi began taking fire from unidentified Libyan extremists."

? About 10:15 p.m.: "The attackers gained access to the compound and began firing into the main building, setting it on fire. The Libyan guard force and our mission security personnel responded. At that time, there were three people inside the building: Ambassador Stevens, one of our regional security officers, and Information Management Officer Sean Smith."

? Between 10:15 p.m.-10:45 p.m.: Sean Smith is found dead.

? About 10:45 p.m.: "U.S. security personnel assigned to the mission annex tried to regain the main building, but that group also took heavy fire and had to return to the mission annex."

? About 11:20 p.m.: "U.S. and Libyan security personnel ? regain the main building and they were able to secure it."

? Around midnight: "The mission annex then came under fire itself at around 6 o'clock in the evening our time, and that continued for about two hours. It was during that time that two additional U.S. personnel were killed and two more were wounded during that ongoing attack."

? 12:07 a.m. (6:07 p.m. EDT): The State Department's Operations Center sends an email to the White House, Pentagon, FBI and other government agencies that said Ansar al-Sharia has claimed credit for the attack on its Facebook and Twitter accounts. (The existence of the email was not disclosed until Reuters reported it on Oct. 24.)

? About 2:30 a.m.: "Libyan security forces were able to assist us in regaining control of the situation. At some point in all of this - and frankly, we do not know when - we believe that Ambassador Stevens got out of the building and was taken to a hospital in Benghazi. We do not have any information what his condition was at that time. His body was later returned to U.S. personnel at the Benghazi airport."

? About 10 p.m. EDT (4 a.m. Benghazi time): Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issues a statement confirming that one State official was killed in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Her statement, which MSNBC posted at 10:32 p.m., made reference to an anti-Muslim video.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Email this article

Check the facts

Q: What happened during the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya? A: The time line of the attack: 8:30 p.m. Benghazi time (2:30 p.m. EDT): U.S.